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Post by fkaboneyard on Apr 24, 2017 12:04:16 GMT -6
Coached a kid as a middle schooler and as a freshman, he quit going into his sophomore year because he had to take care of his dying mother (a single mom). He wasn't a very good football player but he loved the game and always gave 100%, the kind of kid that every guy likes to coach. He tried to come back as a junior but his dad was a real prig and didn't want to be tied down to taking him to practices and games, he wanted to be able to take his ski boat to the river every weekend. The boy seemed like a nuisance to him. He needed football far more than football needed him so I offered to get him home from practice every day and said he could stay with me (one of my sons was his friend) on the weekends that dad was at the river drinking beer with his friends. Dad refused and told me to screw off, mind my own business. I still get a lump in my throat thinking about that boy apologizing for not being able to play. He really wanted it.
Had a kid quit because his dog was about to have puppies and he wanted to play with the puppies once they were born. That kid was a junior. Ay-yi-yi.
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Post by fshamrock on Apr 24, 2017 12:44:28 GMT -6
heard this one second hand from a guy who played QB at new mexico in the 70's
so they are in team and there's one WR that is constantly getting chewed on by his position coach, the OC, everybody, so they call a pass play "840 Z -out" or some such and he messes up the route, so he gets chewed on and they run it again, he messes it up so they really get after him, so they run it again. Ball is snapped WR comes out of his stance, starts running down the field, goes all the way into the end zone, then past the end zone, then behind some buildings and is gone. After practice as the players are walking to the locker room there is a trail of equipment leading back into the locker room, a knee pad here, then a glove a little ways up, then a thigh pad etc. Kid's locker is empty and he's never seen from again Few days later one of the players finally asks the coach "hey coach what happened to johnny" coach: "Oh johnny, he just ran one of our new pass plays" "what play is that" "johnny ran 840 _ it"
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Post by s73 on Apr 24, 2017 15:49:48 GMT -6
I understand this as I was one of those kids. Grew up in a single parent family and needed to earn my own spending money. HOWEVER, if a kid really WANTS to play FB he will make it work. I got a job where the hours were primarily evening hours so I would work after practice. Wasn't easy to go to work after practice until 10-11pm but I did it b/c no way I was giving up FB. So to me...if the kid really wants to make it work he will. I have a few kids who periodically have to leave practice a tad early and I can live with that. But for the most part, IME, kids who quit to work usually would PREFER working over playing FB. Which is certainly their choice. But you can make it work if you really want to. JMO. One of the most mentally tough young men I have coaches used to follow a schedule very close to the following: 5am - wakeup 5:30am - be at hardee's to make the morning biscuits 7:30am - be at school to finish/do homework from the night before 8:00am to 2:30pm - school 2:30pm to 3:00pm - football study hall 3:15pm to 5:30pm - practice 6:00pm to 11:00pm - back to work until close at hardee's after that I assume some homework and sleep, wake up the next day and repeat. This kid's family didn't have much, if anything. He was working to buy his football gear, his younger brother's (6th grader) football gear. I will also assume he was paying some of the bills at home. He would rarely have to leave a practice early to go to work, but if that happened, he would miss no more than 30 minutes of practice time. Last I heard from him he was going to a film school in texas. But....the most important question coach. He bring you any a 'dem biscuits? Love those kinda kids!
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Post by aceback76 on Apr 24, 2017 15:59:31 GMT -6
It's the players who cannot handle #3 (below) that are apt to quit!
SELECTING PLAYERS (we used this both recruiting for College, & trying to develop these things in High School coaching):
1. He must be dedicated to the game of football.
2. He must have the desire to excel and to win.
3. He must be tough physically and mentally (see below).
4. He must be willing to make personal sacrifices.
5. He must put team glory in front of personal glorification.
6. He must be a leader of men both on and off the field.
7. He should be a good student.
NOTE: Great elaboration on #3 (above): “We believe and teach our boys they must be more aggressive and “out-mean” our opponents if they expect to win with consistency. If we “out-mean” and physically whip our opponents by hard blocking and tackling, and we are consistent in doing it, we’ll win a lot of football games. Football is a contact sport, and we must make the initial contact. In order to be a winner a boy must whip his man individually, and the team must collectively beat the opponent physically”.
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Post by carookie on Apr 24, 2017 17:17:09 GMT -6
heard this one second hand from a guy who played QB at new mexico in the 70's so they are in team and there's one WR that is constantly getting chewed on by his position coach, the OC, everybody, so they call a pass play "840 Z -out" or some such and he messes up the route, so he gets chewed on and they run it again, he messes it up so they really get after him, so they run it again. Ball is snapped WR comes out of his stance, starts running down the field, goes all the way into the end zone, then past the end zone, then behind some buildings and is gone. After practice as the players are walking to the locker room there is a trail of equipment leading back into the locker room, a knee pad here, then a glove a little ways up, then a thigh pad etc. Kid's locker is empty and he's never seen from again Few days later one of the players finally asks the coach "hey coach what happened to johnny" coach: "Oh johnny, he just ran one of our new pass plays" "what play is that" "johnny ran 840 _ it" I saw a HS game a while back where a kid pulled something like this. Got mad at the coach, or the coach got mad at him; started stripping off gear as he walked up to the stands. Watched the 2nd half in an undershirt and his game pants (sans pads) from the stands. I assume he quit too.
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Post by coachcb on Apr 25, 2017 8:57:51 GMT -6
The best excuse I got came from a kid who was decent QB in a SBV offense. He wasn't the quickest kid but he read the HOK well did well and we won a ton of games with him. He said he wasn't coming out for football one spring and we asked him why. Here is his response:
"I'm a throwing quarterback coach, not a scrambler. I don't want to play if we're going to keep running the ball so much."
We waited for him to leave the room and then had a good chuckle about it. The term "scrambler" came from the NCAA video games..
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Post by fantom on Apr 25, 2017 12:51:51 GMT -6
We had a guy once who never told us the reason but we could figure it out. He was a pretty big kid who came to the weight room and said that he wanted to play football. We watched him working out and he looked promising. That lasted until I spotted him on the bench and noticed that he was wearing a Death's Head ring. He wasn't just a short haired white kid, he was a full out skinhead. It didn't become a problem because he never came back. I'm pretty sure that he decided that he didn't quite fit into our team culture.
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Post by fshamrock on Apr 25, 2017 13:01:15 GMT -6
We had a guy once who never told us the reason but we could figure it out. He was a pretty big kid who came to the weight room and said that he wanted to play football. We watched him working out and he looked promising. That lasted until I spotted him on the bench and noticed that he was wearing a Death's Head ring. He wasn't just a short haired white kid, he was a full out skinhead. It didn't become a problem because he never came back. I'm pretty sure that he decided that he didn't quite fit into our team culture. This is reminds me of another story I heard, sorry for all the stories, guess I'm feeling nostalgic: but anyway guy I played with nephew to Gary Kubiak when he was OC for the Denver Broncos, so he got to spend the summer working camp for the team. According to him, one day in the locker room after practice a group of young players have brought a boom box and are playing rap music at high volume. Several of the veterans start to ease away from them for some reason...young players just shrug it off...until in walks Bill Romanowki, he walks past them..stops in his tracks, turns around and kicks the boom box into pieces...he then says "I don' t ever wanna hear this ghetto bull*** in my locker room"...everybody gets quiet, until somebody meekly says "okay Romo no problem"..and it was never played again. not that I support being a racist jerk.....but it does iterate exactly how scary a human being bill romanowski must have been
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Post by fkaboneyard on Apr 25, 2017 13:09:41 GMT -6
We had a guy once who never told us the reason but we could figure it out. He was a pretty big kid who came to the weight room and said that he wanted to play football. We watched him working out and he looked promising. That lasted until I spotted him on the bench and noticed that he was wearing a Death's Head ring. He wasn't just a short haired white kid, he was a full out skinhead. It didn't become a problem because he never came back. I'm pretty sure that he decided that he didn't quite fit into our team culture. You're better off without a kid like that although he could maybe have learned how backward he was by working with others.
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Post by fantom on Apr 25, 2017 18:34:40 GMT -6
We had a guy once who never told us the reason but we could figure it out. He was a pretty big kid who came to the weight room and said that he wanted to play football. We watched him working out and he looked promising. That lasted until I spotted him on the bench and noticed that he was wearing a Death's Head ring. He wasn't just a short haired white kid, he was a full out skinhead. It didn't become a problem because he never came back. I'm pretty sure that he decided that he didn't quite fit into our team culture. You're better off without a kid like that although he could maybe have learned how backward he was by working with others. Kind of doubt it. There's an epilogue: A few years later, there were local news stories that numerous people were reporting seeing a car with an offensive personalized license plate. Of course, it turned out that the driver was our boy Little Adolf, whose plate was "Zyklon B". Apparently, although the DMV has a list of banned tag numbers, they were unaware that Zyklon B was the gas that the Nazis used in their death camps.
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Post by coachfrankc on May 11, 2017 6:15:55 GMT -6
Our top 3 we usually hear are 1) "practice isn't fun"
2) "The team is bad"
3) " I don't want to get hurt"
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Post by trenchwarfare58 on May 11, 2017 6:37:52 GMT -6
We are having a Thursday walkthrough in no gear last season and I have an OL that didn't bring extra clothes; just brought his full gear and the clothes he wore to school (khaki shorts and a t-shirt. Of course, instead of wearing his practice pants he decides to practice in his khaki shorts. One of the first plays of the day he gets knocked down (yes, I said walkthrough) and immediately starts crying that his nice shorts were ruined and heads to the locker room. Never saw him again...
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Post by craines10 on May 11, 2017 7:27:40 GMT -6
Had an OL walk away mid season because his grades slipped from all A+ to A's and A-'s...lol...HC told him that is no reason to quit and to take a week to get his grades back right. So we played a pivotal game without our RT....lol
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Post by coachorm on May 11, 2017 7:30:10 GMT -6
Couple of good quitting stories...
First one is during a game against one of our biggest rivals. One of our starters breaks his helmet and we need another for him. So we find a kid that doesnt start who has the exact same size and style helmet. Assistant coach ask for his helmet so the starter can get back on the field. Kid refuses. Coach then tells him to give him the helmet. KId explodes and throws all his equipment off and goes to the other side of the field and cheers for the opponent.
Second happened recently.. A kid comes in the first day of spring practice and tells the HC he is quitting because quote: Football is pretty f'ing gay!
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Post by mwpilots on May 11, 2017 8:05:09 GMT -6
I told this one before. 1st year coaching, 1st day in pads. We warm up and then have a 'rousing' round of Oklahoma for about 30 minutes. We take a break to get water. This good ole boy saunters over to the coaches and says, "Coach J, y'all so nuff fo for real out here!" Coach J says, "Yes, we get after it a bit." Player says, "Welp, I'm gonna take it to the house." And proceeds to head back to the locker room. This has got to be one of the funniest things that I have heard ever. I am laughing so hard at this. I had a 9th grader in 2010 tell me that he and his sister had a heart attack at the same so he could not play any longer.
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Post by CS on May 11, 2017 8:29:48 GMT -6
Couple of good quitting stories... First one is during a game against one of our biggest rivals. One of our starters breaks his helmet and we need another for him. So we find a kid that doesnt start who has the exact same size and style helmet. Assistant coach ask for his helmet so the starter can get back on the field. Kid refuses. Coach then tells him to give him the helmet. KId explodes and throws all his equipment off and goes to the other side of the field and cheers for the opponent. Second happened recently.. A kid comes in the first day of spring practice and tells the HC he is quitting because quote: Football is pretty f'ing gay!I disagree with 19delta, THIS belongs on a t-shirt! I'm going to wear it to our parent meeting I think
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syk
Freshmen Member
Posts: 22
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Post by syk on May 11, 2017 8:42:18 GMT -6
What are some of your best selling points to talk a kid out of quitting?
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Post by fkaboneyard on May 11, 2017 11:41:32 GMT -6
Couple of good quitting stories... First one is during a game against one of our biggest rivals. One of our starters breaks his helmet and we need another for him. So we find a kid that doesnt start who has the exact same size and style helmet. Assistant coach ask for his helmet so the starter can get back on the field. Kid refuses. Coach then tells him to give him the helmet. KId explodes and throws all his equipment off and goes to the other side of the field and cheers for the opponent. Second happened recently.. A kid comes in the first day of spring practice and tells the HC he is quitting because quote: Football is pretty f'ing gay! Both of these are AWESOME.
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Post by tothehouse on May 11, 2017 12:03:26 GMT -6
Kid once quit during the middle the season. During these years our teams did not lose...but this particular year we were 1-6 or so at the time.
Find out the kid quits and the HC sends the kid to me...to personally tell me he quits. Kid says he's "going to focus on his music and his band"
After I called him a quitter and when he was walking out I said..."I better see your {censored} on the billboard top 200".
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Post by blastdouble on May 12, 2017 0:31:10 GMT -6
Sure, football does not tell students that they aren't good enough to play. Basketball holds tryouts and keep the 15 best, baseball has tryouts and keep 30, on and on the list goes. When you come to football the door is open. There are no tryouts to see if your the 50 best to make the team. I realize there are some schools that only keep 65, but most have a hard time finding enough guys to play. So if you are willing to work, give what you have, and take the pain. Football will not reject you. In theory, I've never seen anybody actually do this, but you could have starters on Offense, Defense, KO, KOR, Punt, PR, field goal/pat, onside kick, hands team, or even FG block if you got real creative. That's 110 possible positions, and there's no certain height, weight, shape, speed, or athletic ability needed for all of these. Now, clearly it would be an incredible feat to have 110 different players in those positions, but even if you halved it you would be playing 55 guys in key roles during the game. and if you want to be 2-deep thats back at 110. Which lead me to football needs as many players as there are willing students to come out. Even if a kid can't play football for something like a medical reason, there is a place for him. We have film guys(girls), managers that do anything from water to setting out dummies and cones for drills. There are ball boys needed for Friday night. There is no sport as inclusive as football, the only reason a player can't make it is because THEY aren't willing. THEIR lack of effort can't and shouldn't be blamed on football. I have a son, when he's a teenager I will not force him to play football. But, because I think football teaches the greatest lessons he'll learn in high school, he WILL be involved in football. Whether that's as a manager, film guy, ball/water boy, or even my film tagger/data enterer, he WILL be at practice and around the sport. got long, sorry about that, hope it came out clear. Great post, coach. You nailed it. When I was in high school, I was a big, unathletic awkward kid. But I worked my butt off in the weight room and my coaches respected me. As a result, I earned a starting position on a playoff team for a school in my state's largest classification. Were it not for football, I wouldn't have had a sport to play. This was me too... 6'4 260lbs of uncoordination, atleast until my Junior year when my nervous system finally caught up with my body. So glad I stuck it out and didn't quit all those years prior. I feel like you don't see as many of the big goofy kids anymore, Everytime i see a big goofy these kid hes neck deep play station and there just isn't any foundation to build on since they've just been sitting on there butt for 15 years...
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Post by Party@QB on May 16, 2017 5:49:45 GMT -6
We had a guy once who never told us the reason but we could figure it out. He was a pretty big kid who came to the weight room and said that he wanted to play football. We watched him working out and he looked promising. That lasted until I spotted him on the bench and noticed that he was wearing a Death's Head ring. He wasn't just a short haired white kid, he was a full out skinhead. It didn't become a problem because he never came back. I'm pretty sure that he decided that he didn't quite fit into our team culture. This is reminds me of another story I heard, sorry for all the stories, guess I'm feeling nostalgic: but anyway guy I played with nephew to Gary Kubiak when he was OC for the Denver Broncos, so he got to spend the summer working camp for the team. According to him, one day in the locker room after practice a group of young players have brought a boom box and are playing rap music at high volume. Several of the veterans start to ease away from them for some reason...young players just shrug it off...until in walks Bill Romanowki, he walks past them..stops in his tracks, turns around and kicks the boom box into pieces...he then says "I don' t ever wanna hear this ghetto bull*** in my locker room"...everybody gets quiet, until somebody meekly says "okay Romo no problem"..and it was never played again. not that I support being a racist jerk.....but it does iterate exactly how scary a human being bill romanowski must have been Didn't Romanowski get in a fight during practice with the Raiders and send another player to the hospital after beating him in the face with his helmet?
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Post by Party@QB on May 16, 2017 5:57:05 GMT -6
What are some of your best selling points to talk a kid out of quitting? Have to know the kid. Is it the kid who really doesn't want to quit, but hasn't had any meaningful confirmation that he's doing something right from an adult -or- is it the kid who genuinely hates football, his teammates, and the coaches? The first kid gets loved on because football is probably the only thing he's really good at and he's tired of barely passing classes, no teacher brags on him, and mom/dad are in another world. The second kid gets all the reasons I can think of why he should quit. I go with the Jesus approach, tell them all the reasons it will be hard on them, and if they still choose to stick it out, you can count on them... except Judas of course, he'll get you fired.
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Post by fshamrock on May 16, 2017 7:10:57 GMT -6
This is reminds me of another story I heard, sorry for all the stories, guess I'm feeling nostalgic: but anyway guy I played with nephew to Gary Kubiak when he was OC for the Denver Broncos, so he got to spend the summer working camp for the team. According to him, one day in the locker room after practice a group of young players have brought a boom box and are playing rap music at high volume. Several of the veterans start to ease away from them for some reason...young players just shrug it off...until in walks Bill Romanowki, he walks past them..stops in his tracks, turns around and kicks the boom box into pieces...he then says "I don' t ever wanna hear this ghetto bull*** in my locker room"...everybody gets quiet, until somebody meekly says "okay Romo no problem"..and it was never played again. not that I support being a racist jerk.....but it does iterate exactly how scary a human being bill romanowski must have been Didn't Romanowski get in a fight during practice with the Raiders and send another player to the hospital after beating him in the face with his helmet? if I remember right it was some rookie tight end....he punched the dude in the face and detached his retina....ended the guys career
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Post by fantom on May 16, 2017 7:50:51 GMT -6
Didn't Romanowski get in a fight during practice with the Raiders and send another player to the hospital after beating him in the face with his helmet? if I remember right it was some rookie tight end....he punched the dude in the face and detached his retina....ended the guys career If memory serves me (And I have to admit that I don't think about Bill Romanowski that much) he snatched the guy's helmet off before he punched him. Edit: Typically, I Googled it AFTER posting my comment: www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=2002171
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Post by coachcb on May 16, 2017 10:43:04 GMT -6
Yesterday in class:
"I'm not playing football next year, coach."
"Why not? You had a good season last year."
"I break bones pretty easily and I don't want to get hurt for basketball."
"How many bones have you actually broken."
"Uhmm... A couple."
"What do you mean 'a couple'?"
"I slammed my hand in a car door last year and broke two fingers.. Oh, and I had hairline fractures in my shin from getting kicked by a cow."
"So.. None of those were related to football.."
"Nope, but I have fragile bones."
Any response after that would have included some severe berating and expletives so I just walked away.
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Post by Sonofahitch on May 16, 2017 16:26:13 GMT -6
We had one quit because he thought he was losing to much hair taking his helmet off and on. This has to be the winner! That's the reason the kid gave you? Awesome.
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Post by coachklee on May 16, 2017 18:01:31 GMT -6
I'll bite on this one. Just to clarify before I start...I am all for kids participating in ANY after school activity.. That being said, a good friend of mine has a son in 6th grade..he has been a baseball player since he was practically born...this year he decided he wanted to play football..I/we got him on a team that we knew had a good coach. so I go to watch him play a few games and the mom offhandedly said "Tony has never been so close to his baseball teammates as he is to his football teammates, perhaps we need to have more team dinners or something...I said Tony has been sweating and bleeding with these guys for 7 weeks now, a team dinner won't be able to replicate that kids literally bleeding, and fighting for each other and a TEAM is what separates football for other endeavors...no other school sport,IMO, can replicate it.. I will bite back. I love football. It changed my life. I had six guys in my wedding. Three relatives and three teammates. I am all-in on the benefits of this game. However, I don't believe it has a monopoly on character development. I think when people work together to master a task and achieve a common goal they can gain the same benefits football provides. I think we somewhat agree. I think for positive character mobility there has to be sacrifice of self and an investment in others. I don't think football provides that exclusively. That definitely takes more than team meals as in your example. I have a nephew that is a profession bass player. His commitment to his craft is amazing. His pursuit towards excellence allows him to work with others and create. He has found a path that has allowed him to maximize his talents and contribute to those around him. If he played football he would have been a back up center on the freshmen team as a senior. I have numerous student examples with similar stories. I think everyone could benefit from playing football but I don't think it's the best option for everyone. AWESOME THREAD GUYS!!! 4 out of the 6 guys in my wedding party were HS Football teammates (except for the one guy who was from a rival school who we got stuck rooming with in college & became a best friend & my wife's brother whom I've grown close to). The best "teammate" & my best man happened to be my brother...football bonds more guys together more closely than anything else I can think of aside from military service...I know I can count on so many close friends & so many other former classmates because we counted on each other building for 4 years together to do the best we could to represent our community & school. Really in describable!!! This doesn't even include the bond that I've had as a coach with several players that really rivals a resemblance of a being an older brother...it happens other places, but few are as inclusive as football!
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Post by coach55 on May 17, 2017 0:37:48 GMT -6
We had one quit because he thought he was losing to much hair taking his helmet off and on. This has to be the winner! That's the reason the kid gave you? Awesome. Yes! Absolutely, just when you think you have heard it all. It really was unbelievable. He was an only child that had really been babied his whole life. It was his junior year. Big kid, decent feet, but soft. He had played on the jv the year before and had a shot at starting in offensive line. Anyway second week of preseason he and his mother come out to practice fields before practice and actually ask us coaches to look in his helmet and at his head to observe the amount of hair loss! They asked if they made any other type of helmets to help with this problem. I continue today to crack up on the inside every time I see this kid around town.
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Post by coachwoodall on May 17, 2017 6:17:04 GMT -6
This has to be the winner! That's the reason the kid gave you? Awesome. Yes! Absolutely, just when you think you have heard it all. It really was unbelievable. He was an only child that had really been babied his whole life. It was his junior year. Big kid, decent feet, but soft. He had played on the jv the year before and had a shot at starting in offensive line. Anyway second week of preseason he and his mother come out to practice fields before practice and actually ask us coaches to look in his helmet and at his head to observe the amount of hair loss! They asked if they made any other type of helmets to help with this problem. I continue today to crack up on the inside every time I see this kid around town. did it grow back?
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Post by 3rdandlong on May 17, 2017 7:43:08 GMT -6
Couple of good quitting stories... First one is during a game against one of our biggest rivals. One of our starters breaks his helmet and we need another for him. So we find a kid that doesnt start who has the exact same size and style helmet. Assistant coach ask for his helmet so the starter can get back on the field. Kid refuses. Coach then tells him to give him the helmet. KId explodes and throws all his equipment off and goes to the other side of the field and cheers for the opponent. Second happened recently.. A kid comes in the first day of spring practice and tells the HC he is quitting because quote: Football is pretty f'ing gay! m With all the stories of syrup and hot dogs, he's right!
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